Newsletter January 29: Stay Safe
Hey folders,
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update. I'm writing this from upstate New York where the wind is blowing hard and the snow is coming down and it's freezing outside. I'm thinking about our global situation and our wonderful Foldit player Mike Cassidy who has been ill with COVID-19. I hope he, and everyone else affected by this awful disease, are doing as best as they can be. Stay safe, everyone. We are facing difficult times, but with persistence and community we will survive this crisis.
Solutions from This Week's Puzzles
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Puzzle 1944: Symmetric Tetramer Design: H-Bond Networks
Puzzle 1945: Designable Linker: Coronavirus Spike Binder
Recipes of the Week
Need something different to fold to? Here are a few recipes for disaster.
Today’s Master Folding Tips
Check out part 5 of How to Foldit. In this part, I talk about all of the visualization options available to you and why you'd want to use each of them.
Have a good design? Don't forget to click the Share with Scientists button so our scientists pay extra attention to it.
Until next time, happy folding.
Newsletter February 5: Tetramers and Quartets
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.
Solutions from This Week's Puzzles
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Puzzle 1947: Symmetric Tetramer Design: H-Bond Networks
Puzzle 1948: Designable Linker: Coronavirus Spike Binder
Art of the Week
“Harp Quartett” by HuubR
Today’s Master Folding Tips
Check out How to Foldit, Part 6: Mastering Objectives. In this installment of our weekly series, I describe all of the Objectives you might encounter and what to do about them. But you experts might notice I’ve left the new one out: the Contact Molecular Surface metric. Let’s talk about it on the Discord! Share your insights about the Contact MS metric and tag @Josh so we can talk about the best strategies for solving that metric.
Have a question? Ask on our forums or in the #global chat! Players and developers alike are always happy to chat!
Until next time, happy folding!
Newsletter February 12: Starting the Lunar New Year with a BAM!
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update. Happy Lunar New Year!
Solutions from This Week's Puzzles
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Puzzle 1950: Two-sided Interface Design
Puzzle 1951: Designable Linker: Coronavirus Spike Binder
Puzzle 1952: BAM Complex with Electron Density
Recipe of the Week
To celebrate the new year, try these steamed bao buns! And then try Kuwaga’s Repeat Settle, converted to Lua by WBarme1234. Delicious!
Today’s Master Folding Tips
Check out Part 7 of How to Foldit. This week, I take you through the jargon you might see when talking with a veteran folder, as well as some details on every amino acid in Foldit.
Have a recipe to recommend? Email us at mail.fold.it@gmail.com with a link to your recipe so we can share it in the next newsletter!
Until next time, happy folding!
Newsletter February 19: You won't believe how this binder got a high score!
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.
Solutions from This Week's Puzzles
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Puzzle 1953: Influenza HA Binder Design
Puzzle 1954: Symmetric Tetramer Design: H-bond Networks
Puzzle 1955: Scorpion Toxin
Recipe of the Week
This week’s recipe is Optimizer by cjddig. This is their first recipe, so be sure to rate it and give them feedback on Discord! And don’t forget to check out their Foldit streams at Twitch!
Today’s Master Folding Tips
Check out Part 8 of How to Foldit! In this part, I describe a TON of useful recipes as well as when, why, and how to use them!
Looking for a flatter puzzle, maybe with some RNA instead of proteins? Check out our sister game, Eterna!
Until next time, happy folding!
Newsletter February 26: Let's Start Over...
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.
Solutions from This Week's Puzzles
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Puzzle 1956: Influenza HA Binder Design: Round 2
Puzzle 1957: Designable Linker: Coronavirus Spike Binder
Puzzle 1958: BAM Complex with Electron Density
Recipe of the Week
Want to start your puzzle fresh? Try tlaloc’s Make Denovo to pull your whole protein apart into an extended chain. Just be aware that this is a V1 recipe and won’t be supported soon, so if you like it, check out this post for information on how to convert it to V2.
Player of the Week
This week’s Player of the Week is Drum, aka drumpeter, aka disturbedxxx666. Drum has been folding with us since 2012, and their presence is always a pleasure in chat! Thanks for being a dedicated folder, Drum!
Today’s Master Folding Tips
We’re almost at the end of the How to Foldit series! Check out Part 9 for a look at subscores and some general strategy tips.
Want to see a player or recipe highlighted in the next newsletter? Send us an email at mail.fold.it@gmail.com!
Until next time, happy folding!
Newsletter March 5: The Last Trimer Will Shock You!
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.
Solutions from This Week's Puzzles
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Puzzle 1960: Symmetric Trimer Design: H-Bond Networks
I am always surprised by the ingenuity of Foldit players… Great job everybody!
Puzzle 1961: Beta-Neurotoxin
Recipe of the Week
Not sure where to start on your design? Try SSPred by BitSpawn to help you figure out your secondary structures!
Player of the Week
This week’s spotlight goes to NeedMoreCoffee, who’s been folding with us since 2008! Thanks for sticking with it! I too could use more coffee…
Today’s Master Folding Tips
Like chess, Foldit is a slow, thoughtful game. Visualize the design you want, then work methodically to make it happen. Not sure what a good design looks like? Check out my gallery of folds, or check the wiki for previous puzzle results!
Reading this on the forums? Sign up for the mailing list here so you can stay up-to-date when these newsletters are first released!
Until next time, happy folding!
Newsletter March 12: AI ML YYDS FTW
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.
Solutions from This Week's Puzzles
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Puzzle 1962: Influenza HA Binder Design
Puzzle 1963: Two-sided Interface Design
Puzzle 1965: Insulin Mutant
Recipe of the Week
Are you a fan of machine learning? Try AI Learns nCoV by Vincero. This recipe evolves the work of zo3xiaJonWeinberg and Grom to make an optimizing recipe that even optimizes itself!
Player of the Week
A big thanks to the students from the University of Science and Technology Beijing for folding with us! We are delighted to see you all learning with us in chat. Xie xie!
News from the Baker Lab
The scientists at the Baker Lab have cooked up a new way to calculate BUNS! Check out Susume’s summary here.
Today’s Master Folding Tips
Check out the tenth and final part of How to Foldit, out now. In this last installment, I describe how you can start thinking about Foldit in the way the scientists do, and I review some of the ways scientists think about protein designs.
Did you enjoy the How to Foldit series? Want more posts like that? Send us an email at mail.fold.it@gmail.com and tell us what you’d like us to write about next!
Until next time, happy folding!
Newsletter March 19: A New Kind of Competition!
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.
Solutions from This Week's Puzzles
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Puzzle 1964: Unsolved Huge Cryo-EM Density: Beet Virus
Puzzle 1967: Symmetric Trimer Design: H-bond Networks
Today’s Master Folding Tips
Want to write a recipe that cares about hydrogen bonds? Check out the new HBonds Lua function to see all of the information now available to you about your protein’s hydrogen bonding!
Upcoming Updates
Here are some updates to look forward to this week:
General
- Updated the main menu and loading screens
- The left/right arrow keys can now be used with the Segment Info panel to cycle between segment information in the Selection Interface
- Added font support for Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Latin, and Cyrillic alphabets
- Added Portuguese translation courtesy of Foldit player socramdm
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug where deleting text in a note would sometimes not save
- Fixed various bugs related to profanity filters
Special Competition!
In order to advance our scientific discovery, Foldit is holding a special competition for influenza hemagglutinin binder designs! How do you compete? The winner will be the soloist player who submits the most solutions with scores greater than 10,000 points. Every solution needs to be from a fresh restart (from scratch) and evolved solutions won’t count. And note, you need to use the Upload for Scientist button to submit your solutions. Bkoep gives some background on why we’re holding this competition in his blog post.
If you like playing Foldit to contribute to science, participating in this competition is the best way to do so right now!
Good luck, and until next time, happy folding!
March 26: Enter the Dojo!
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.
Solutions from This Week's Puzzles
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Puzzle 1969: Symmetric Trimer Design: H-bond Networks
Puzzle 1970: TCR Binding Protein
Upcoming Updates
I’m very excited to announce a NEW GAME MODE coming soon! Dojo Mode is a brand new way to play Foldit and practice your folding skills. Check out this post for more information on what Dojo mode is.
Want to try out Dojo mode for yourself right now? Dojo mode is currently live in Foldit’s developer preview, or “devprev”, release. Here’s how to join devprev to see the latest updates.
Until next time, happy folding!
Newsletter April 2: No Fools Here
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.
Solutions from This Week's Puzzles
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Puzzle 1971: Symmetric Trimer Design: H-Bond Networks
Upcoming Updates
Here’s a sneak peak at what patches are coming in the near future:
- Bug fixes to Dojo mode
- Bug fixes to the Reaction Design tutorial puzzle
- Bug fixes for Objectives
As always, thanks to our devprev users for help testing out new Foldit features!
Player of the Week
Congratulations to fiendish_ghoul for taking the #1 spot on Puzzle 1972! Want to get better at ED? Check out the wiki for tips and tutorial videos!
Today’s Master Folding Tips
Beginner: Chat is your best resource! Say hi to folks when you go online.
Intermediate: Skip the late game and focus on your early-to-mid game hand-folding. If you don’t like how your design looks when you open up your cookbook, recipes won’t make it much better.
Expert: Instead of thinking of each amino acid as hydrophobic or hydrophilic, think about them on an atom-by-atom level! Carbons are non-polar and hydrophobic, but oxygens and nitrogens are polar. Use the carbons for hydrophobic packing, but make sure every O and N is bonded to avoid BUNS. Roll up your sleeves, making a great design requires getting into the gritty atomic details!
Missed this month’s Lab Report? Check it out here!
Until next time, happy folding!
